The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back
by SweetCarnation
Summary: Once upon a time, thieves caught red-handed lost their hands.


_A/N: pretty gory._

_Summary: Once upon a time, we cut the hands of thieves caught red-handed. We cut the hands of Zidane._

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**The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back**

That took the cake.

Zidane hefted a defeated sigh, shaking the biting cuffs around his wrist. The cold metal was devouring his skin and eating at his nerves end, melting the flesh like poisonous vines. With a hiss, the thief shuffled against the restriction, moving them up his forearm.

The cuffs were the least of his troubles. As he dragged feet and tail forward, carefully snaking his furry appendage out of harm's way from the stomping guards flanking his sides and back, people flocked in a tight mass around him, leaving a narrow path of stone brick for him to walk on.

The swell of people pressed together against him, each trying to catch a view of the foolish sentenced thief. They saw a scrawny boy, his whole body slouching like it had become part of its spine, dirty ashen blonde bangs framing his face in shadows.

Scurrying forward, Zidane grit his teeth together, sucking in pain, anger and fear. His heart hammered madly against his rib cage, and whenever he gazed down at his loose, once white, undershirt, the thief thought he could see the skin of his left pectoral pulse in anxiety along his heart.

And confound it all, his fingers were _shaking!_

The more he walked, the more his ears filled with the cacophonic buzz of the crowd. Gasps and shouts and yells and murmurs surrounded him, his cuffs rattled and chimed, amplifying this feeling of _oh shiiiit_. Good lord, his knees were going weak at the thought of what awaited him.

God, god, god, no, they were getting so close. No, NO!

Zidane didn't notice he had frozen in his steps until the Alexandrian guard wacked the back of his head, sending him tumbling head first. The thief managed to regain his footing, but not his calm.

Oh shit, it was getting closer. He could make out the oak table and that goddamn Beatrix and her Save the Queen. Lord, his arms were shaking in fear, his heart was spasming and missing one beat on two. Blood rushed to his brain and face, and the heat was becoming unbearable.

When he reached the damn table, in the middle of the whole town, his knees gave out. Oh god, no. All but that. Even his pride.

God, _no_.

Beatrix looked down upon him and Zidane realized he had breathed the last two words.

Inside his chest, he could only feel a slow rattle, like his heart had given out. Paralysed in anguish, Zidane did not fight the Alexandrian guards as they unlocked his cuff and placed his left hand on the table, binding it once more. His right arm was locked behind his back and Zidane forced his eyes up to Beatrix.

Oh god, oh god, his heart was in his throat, the blood drained from his face. She raised Save the Queen high, high, _HIGH_ _and –_

He howled.

From his left arm, oh god, oh GOD, it was bleeding, and the pain, the pain, the_ fucking pain_, god, no, god, no. His hand! Where was his hand? Why couldn't he _feel _his hand!?

God, it was horrible, the pain, the horrible pain. Lord have some mercy on him, it hurt, it writhed, it sucked, it stung, it _BLED_.

White hot burned at his left, at his side, at his heart. Behind his eyeballs, pure darkness, pure pain. Fire licking at his insides, outsides, _everywhere! _Good lord, Odin, it smelled like fire, it burned, _it burned_, it was oozing, pulsing, moving, moaning. Oh god, please, god! His body buckled up and down, he howled, screamed, yelled his throat sore. He could make out the pattern of pain, the shock and lightning through his nerves. They pulsed white, dark, brown, bloody against his skin.

Zidane howled, yelled, let scalding tears stream down.

His heart stopped in horror, started beating again even though he had died in pain, his body shaking, wracked in sobs and trembling, _dying._

Zidane risked a look at the mess of his left and howled in agony 'til his voice broke.

He passed out from the pain.


End file.
